The Inbetween

She finally broke down. Nathan knew now, they all did, and that meant she could finally be free. She could move on from the inbetween and would no longer need to roam the same streets in the same town for the rest of her life. But she was scared; where would she end up? What would happen to her? Where would she go? Would she ever be able to see Nathan again?

“So what happens now?” She heard Siva ask as they finally pulled away from each other and made their way into the living room.

“I have no idea,” she said, “But, if it’s alright with you guys, I’m staying here for as long as possible before whatever happens does.”

“No, it’s not okay, you need to go,” Jay said, pushing her shoulder slightly before pulling her into a hug. “I’m sorry about her, but I’m glad we know now.”

“So am I,” she replied, “I don’t need to haunt you all now.”

“Holly,” she heard Nathan speak her name quietly and turned to look at him. He was standing a little away from them all, looking drained. She walked towards him and wrapped her arms around him, letting a content sigh escape her lips when he finally wrapped his arms around her. She felt him shaking and realised when he buried his face into her hair on her shoulder that he was crying. She shushed him quietly, playing with the hair at the back of his neck before pulling him from the living room and into the hall. She sat on the stairs and pulled him down to sit beside her.

“I’m sorry it was her.” Holly said.

“You’re sorry?” he asked incredulously. “Why are you sorry?!”

“Because I know you loved her.”

“Meh,” he shrugged, “She annoyed me.” He pulled his cap off, fixing his fringe before pulling it back down again.

“That doesn’t mean that you didn’t love her. You’ll find someone else, though; a million times better.”

“I don’t even care about it all anymore, Holly. I’m just… I’m angry at her; I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive her for it.” Holly nodded her head in understanding – if one of her boyfriends had killed Nathan and lied to her that much about it for five years, she wouldn’t be able to forgive them either. She faced forward again. “How do you feel?” Nathan asked.

She took a shaky breath; “I won’t lie to you – I’m scared. But I’m so happy. I’m unbelievably happy, in fact. You done it, you figured it out for me. Nathan,” she grabbed his hands in both of hers, “You freed me.”

“But what’s going to happen to you? Where will you go?” he looked up at her and she smiled slightly, shrugging one of her shoulders.

“I don’t know. I just… I have a feeling that I won’t be waking up on concrete anymore, and that’s good enough for me.”

“But what if you can’t come back and I can’t see you again? What… What if it’s someplace bad and I can’t protect you?”

She smiled brightly this time; “That’s the good thing! I love you, Nathan, but you can’t protect me from everything.” She leaned to her left and nudged his shoulders with hers. “And I think you know as well as I do that I’m not coming back after now. I’m really surprised that I came back just now, to be honest. I didn’t think I would.”

“What did you think would happen?”

“I don’t really know. I thought I might just… leave?” she frowned, “I’m not sure.”

He frowned. They both sat together in a comfortable silence until he pushed himself up from the stairs and sighed dramatically; “Come on, then. I guess we should probably go and talk to the others,” he rolled his eyes with a smirk causing Holly’s identical smirk to appear on her face.

“I guess so. I don’t know why, though. It’s clear that you think they’re all arseholes,” she joked as she flung the door open. Tom and Jay jumped away from the door slightly and Siva’s jaw was hanging open.

Holly and Nathan glanced at each other before bursting into laughter. “What’s funny?” Max asked as he entered the living room from the kitchen, balancing three mugs of tea before going back to the kitchen then returning with another two. Tom and Jay sat down.

“Just that Nathan hates you all,” Holly winked and sat down next to Tom, throwing her feet up on the coffee table and cuddling into his side. “He doesn’t really though,” she grinned.

“Oh, no, I definitely do,” Nathan kept a straight face, “Bunch of twats, the lot of you.”

Holly laughed along with everyone else. This day felt happier than the last day she came back. She noticed it most in Nathan; he seemed to be glowing. Not literally, but he seemed a lot happier and when she looked into his eyes – really looked – there wasn’t as much sadness there anymore. She realised then that not only had this whole ordeal set her free, it had helped Nathan to finally get over what had happened. She smiled at this as she sat up straighter, sighing in content as she threw her head back to rest against the back of the sofa.

“What’s with you?” Siva grinned at her and she pulled her head up to grin back at him.

“I’m just really happy. I haven’t felt this happy in so long.”

Everyone smiled and she settled back down to join in their conversation. At one point whilst Jay was speaking she allowed her eyes to close. After a few seconds she started seeing wisps of white smoke in the blackness of her vision. She frowned to them, wondering what the Hell they were. She’d been concentrating on the swirling masses so much that she hadn’t noticed she couldn’t hear Jay speaking anymore. She panicked, listening to try and find his voice again, but could only hear whispers. She focused in on them but could only make out one word.

“Midnight.”

Holly’s eyes snapped open and she jumped slightly, Jay’s voice trailing off when they noticed her. “What’s up?” He asked.

“I think I have until midnight,” she smiled. She glanced around gauging their reactions. Tom moved his arm from resting behind her to wrap around her shoulder. She smiled. Jay and Siva nodded their heads and smiled at her before glancing at Nathan. Max had looked right at Nathan, gauging his reaction too. Nathan looked at Holly and smiled – a real smile that reached his eyes. She felt relief as he nodded his head then glanced at the clock.

“Well what are we going to do, then?” he grinned.